The present invention generally relates to the field of integrated circuit design, and particularly to a system and method for designing an integrated circuit.
Integrated circuits (IC) have become one of the most necessary components in modern devices. From automobiles and cell phones, to kitchen appliances and video gaming devices, integrated circuits provide a variety of functions. To provide this variety in an optimized manner, application specific integrated circuits (ASIC) may be utilized.
An application specific integrated circuit is generally designed for a specific application rather than as a general-purpose chip. The use of application specific integrated circuits improve performance over general-purpose chips, because application specific integrated circuits are xe2x80x9chardwiredxe2x80x9d to do a specific job, and may thus, not incur the overhead of fetching and interpreting stored instructions. Thus, an application specific integrated circuit may perform an electronic operation in an optimized manner providing that the circuit design is efficiently architected.
However, producing such a wide range of application specific integrated circuits, each having targeted functionality, may be complex, expensive and time consuming. For example, the very size of the circuit, which may include a variety of clock domains, may require extensive testing, verification and redesign before an operational model is produced.
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide a system and method for designing an integrated circuit.
Accordingly, the present invention is directed to a system and method for designing an integrated circuit. The present invention provides a comprehensive design environment defining a system architecture and methodology that may integrate interconnects, cores, ePLC, re-configurable processors and software into a manageable and predictable system designs that achieve on-time system IC design results meeting desired specifications and budgets. For example, the present invention may provide a scalable, temporal interconnect-fabric with standardized core interfaces, and implement a methodology to integrate configurable processors and solution software to design an integrated circuit.
In a first aspect of the present invention, a method for designing an integrated circuit includes manipulating representations of components of an integrated circuit on a display device by a user. An interconnect is specified having a characteristic between a first represented component and a second represented component. Data, suitable for describing the specified interconnect between the first represented component and the second represented component, is extracted.
In a second aspect of the present invention, a system for designing an integrated circuit includes a display device, a memory and a processor. The display device is suitable for displaying representations of components of an integrated circuit for manipulation by a user. The memory is suitable for storing a program of instructions and the processor is suitable for performing a program of instructions. The processor is communicatively coupled to the display device and the memory. The program of instructions configures the processor to display representations of components of an integrated circuit for manipulation by a user on the display device so that a user may specify an interconnect having a characteristic between a first component representation and a second component representation, and extract data describing the first represented component, the second represented component and the specified interconnect as manipulated by the user.
In a third aspect of the present invention, a system for designing an integrated circuit includes a display device, a memory, a processor and an integrated circuit. The display device is suitable for displaying representations of components of an integrated circuit for manipulation by a user. The memory is suitable for storing a program of instructions and the processor is suitable for performing a program of instructions. The processor is communicatively coupled to the display device and the memory. The program of instructions configures the processor to display representations of components of an integrated circuit for manipulation by a user on the display device so that a user may specify an interconnect having a characteristic between a first component representation and a second component representation, and extract data describing the first represented component, the second represented component and the specified interconnect as manipulated by the user. The integrated circuit is communicatively coupled to the processor, wherein the integrated circuit receives the extracted data. The extracted data is utilized by the integrated circuit for being programmed to include the interconnect having the characteristic between a first component corresponding to the first component representation and a second component corresponding to the second component representation.
In a fourth aspect of the present invention, an application specific integrated circuit includes a first component and a second component suitable for providing integrated circuit functions. The first component is communicatively coupled to a first interface device and the second component is communicatively coupled to a second interface device. An interconnect, suitable for communicatively coupling the first interface device with the second interface device, enables communication of the first component with the second component. A memory suitable for storing a program of instructions is also included, the program of instructions including data received for configuring an interconnect having a characteristic between components of an application specific integrated circuit. Further, a processor is included suitable for performing the program of instructions, the processor communicatively coupled to the memory. The program of instructions configures the processor to configure the first component, the second component, and the interconnect to correspond to an interconnect having the characteristic as indicated by the program of instructions
It is to be understood that both the forgoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory only and are not restrictive of the invention as claimed. The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of the specification, illustrate an embodiment of the invention and together with the general description, serve to explain the principles of the invention.